Halle Berry – Best Actress at the 2002 Awards for “Monster’s Ball“
Highlights: Honored “vessel through which this blessing might flow” Halle Berry actually performed a “reverse Paltrow,” bawling less as her speech went on. Until the orchestra struck up and Berry screeched at them “Hey, 74 years here” referring to the fact that that she was the first black woman to win Best Actress (this was the 74th Academy Awards). That she first used those extra seconds, though, to thank her lawyers, was a bum note as she went on to dedicate her win to every “nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance…”
Bonus Trivia: Berry did regain some kudos by showing up to accept her well-deserved Razzie for “Catwoman” and delivering a rambling, brilliantly bitter speech to a rapturous crowd who, like her, couldn’t quite believe she was there.
Michael Caine – Best Supporting Actor at the 2000 Awards for “The Cider House Rules“
Highlights: “…the Academy changed ‘the winner is’ to ‘the Oscar goes to’ and if ever there was a category where the Oscar goes to someone, without there being a winner, it’s this one.” The mother of all “my fellow nominees are amazing” speeches, Caine name-checks each of them individually, quipping to Tom Cruise who was nominated for “Magnolia” “your price would have gone down so fast . Have you any idea what Supporting Actors get paid?”
Bonus Trivia: Caine makes reference to the fact that he wasn’t there the “last time” he won to pick up the award. That was for Best Supporting Actor too, in “Hannah and her Sisters,” and the reason he couldn’t be at the ceremony? He was filming “Jaws 4: The Revenge” [RottenTomatoes: 0%].
Julia Roberts – Best Actress for “Erin Brockovich” at the 2001 ceremony
Best Moments From Speech: Roberts’ speech pretty much anticipates the J-Law school of refreshingly unpolished, witty warmth by more than a decade, as she constantly keeps a nervous eye on the “stick man” (conductor of the orchestra): ” Sir, you’re doing a great job, but you’re so quick with that stick, so why don’t you sit, because I may never be here again.” She goes on to thank “everyone I’ve ever met in my life,” and to claim that the film was “sinfully fun to make,” before culminating in a huge grinning scream of delight and “I LOVE being up here.”
Bonus Trivia: The film was nominated for five awards, winning only this one. However director Steven Soderbergh, who was nominated, can’t get too mad at the guy who beat him out—it was himself, winning instead for “Traffic.”
Jack Palance – Best Supporting Actor for “City Slickers” at the 1992 ceremony
Highlights: The one-armed push-ups have since gone down in Oscar lore, but the rest of the speech is pretty unique too, kicking off with the modified quote, “Billy Crystal? I crap bigger ‘n him.” But it’s the end that tickles us most: “1949, my first film, the producer came to me and he said ‘Jack…you’re gonna win the Academy Award.’ 42 years later he was right! How the sonofabitch knew…”
Bonus Trivia: Host Crystal kept viewers posted for the rest of the night on what Palance was doing, including: being on the backstage StairMaster, bungee-jumping off the Hollywood sign and rendezvousing with the Space Shuttle in orbit, along with a crack that he had fathered all of the children in a musical number and won the New York Primary.